Veterans Group Wants to Make Elon the Supervillain of the Midterms
A new ad campaign from VoteVets goes after vulnerable House Republicans by turning the spotlight on DOGE.
AS PROGRESSIVES START WORKING IN EARNEST on their midterm elections playbook, it appears that Elon Musk, not Donald Trump, will be the primary target.
VoteVets, a progressive political action committee, is launching a new ad campaign zeroing in on several vulnerable Republican members of Congress with a six-figure ad buy in their home districts.
The ads all feature the same roundtable of veterans sharing their struggles after losing employment because of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. Notably, the spot does not include a single mention of Trump. But it features Musk throughout, including the now infamous scene of him wielding a chainsaw on stage at CPAC.
“It feels like veterans are being personally attacked by Elon Musk,” said one veteran in the ad. “I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country,” said another.
At the end of the spots, viewers are encouraged to call their representatives to voice concerns and stop the mass firings.
VoteVets says that the ads will span streaming networks and local broadcast news, targeting the following five lawmakers:
John James (R-Mich.)
Don Bacon (R-Neb.)
Scott Perry (R-Pa.)
Zach Nunn (R-Iowa)
Jen Kiggans (R-Va.)
All Republicans on the advertisement target list won their districts in the past election by single digits. James won by the highest margin with 6.1 percent over his Democratic challenger.
In addition, VoteVets will install billboards—both stationary and mobile—billboards across the five targeted districts.
The decision by VoteVets to cast Musk (and not Trump) in the role of the central villain reflects data that shows the president polls better than the tech mogul. While Trump’s approval ratings have recently dipped following sustained stock-market tumbles, he still holds a significantly favorable advantage over Musk, who was not elected by voters or confirmed to any position by the Senate.
Democrats have likewise kept their focus on Musk and DOGE over the president as they push back on the administration.
The gambit runs the risk of letting Trump remain above the fray. But operatives in the party believe that damage to Elon and DOGE will ultimately hurt the president, since he turned much of the government over to the Tesla CEO.
While DOGE isn’t an actual federal department, the White House has given Musk and his team unfettered access to the nation’s employment systems and much more. DOGE’s indiscriminate approach to slashing the federal budget has had mixed results. One thing it has definitely done, however, is create significant backlash among the public. Even in safe GOP-held districts, Republicans have faced raucous town halls and an extraordinarily high number of phone calls and written complaints from constituents. Republicans have chalked it up to astroturf political activism and instructed their members to forgo the public-relations mess of even hosting town halls. While some Republicans ignored that advice, many have opted for virtual events—Rep. Don Bacon being one of them.
The VoteVets targets have weathered difficult electoral prospects before. But this cycle could present unique challenges.
Despite Bacon’s status as one of the most effective lawmakers of the last Congress (as measured by the number of passed bills), DOGE has created serious political complications that could affect him. These include the cuts it made to the VA.
DOGE has marked 83,000 jobs for termination at the Department of Veterans Affairs—about 17 percent of the workforce. While the VA employs many veterans, other Americans with service records could also lose their jobs at the various agencies in DOGE’s sights. Approximately 30 percent of the federal workforce is made up of veterans thanks to the Veterans’ Preference Act of 1944, which instructs agencies to place preference on veteran applicants and do their best to retain them in the event of layoffs.
Beyond those immediate problems, the VA has to maintain a suicide hotline, which is primarily staffed by remote workers the administration has ordered back to the office or else risk being fired altogether.
The VA layoffs are also set to have an adverse effect on veterans’ health care. According to a 2024 inspector general report, the VA has existing staffing shortages in 137 of its 139 facilities across the United States. The nearly 3,000 staffing shortages in 2024 were just a 5 percent decrease from the previous year. Studies have shown that staffing increases directly result in reduced wait times and the ability to accept new patients.